Employers are picking up their pace in hiring this year, but in the process, they’re getting much more picky.
A new survey finds employers are demanding employees who are already experienced in their specific businesses and have a track record of achieving the results they want.
One-third of the 184 large U.S. and Canadian employers polled by talent management specialists OI Partners Inc. said their hiring process is taking longer this year, in large part because they are conducting more interviews to confirm they are selecting the best candidates. Just 5 per cent said they are making hiring decisions more quickly than in the past.
Over all, 54 per cent of employers have increased hiring this year. But in another trend, 42 per cent said they have become more concerned about retaining their current employees than they were last year, according to the survey by OI Partners and its Toronto based affiliate Feldman Daxon Partners Inc.
“The market has changed and I’m hoping that it will not be this way permanently, because it can be frustrating for job seekers,” said Gord Brandt, Toronto based consultant with Feldman Daxon Partners.
“The reason is that there is currently a greater supply of qualified candidates than there was even a year ago as people start to look for new opportunities. That means employers can afford to be extremely choosy about who they decide to hire and they are sticking more closely to their job specs.” Mr. Brandt said candidates should keep in mind strategies employers are using, including:
Tuning in to social media
To target candidates with the right stuff, companies are increasingly turning to social media, with 44 per cent saying they are using networking site LinkedIn more often than last year and 19 per cent saying they are boosting their search activity on Facebook.
The reason is the exponential growth of social media, Mr. Brandt explained. “Companies are using social media as a convenient way to approach people indirectly to find out whether they might be interested in a move.”
His advice for candidates is to make sure their online profile is essentially their résumé and to highlight specific achievements that they have made recently.
Looking locally
The survey found 36 per cent of employers are going to be posting more job openings on their company websites and 32 per cent are more frequently using employee referrals to develop lists of candidates. And to save on relocation costs, 22 per cent said they will be looking more often for local candidates.
As an example, Mr. Brandt cited a Toronto candidate he’s been working with who was hoping to land a financial management job that opened up in Montreal. He went through successive rounds of interviews in a process that stretched out over a year. “In the end, he lost the job to another candidate who was located in Montreal. Needless to say, it was disheartening.”
Vetting more carefully
Even prime candidates are going to face more gruelling scrutiny, the survey found.
To whittle down the large number of applicants, more than half of the employers said they are interviewing candidates by phone more often than in the past. And 41 per cent said they are doing more panel interviews, Mr. Brandt said. These typically include a head of HR, the applicant’s potential boss and often a person they would work with.
“That is efficient for the employer, but can be more stressful for a candidate because you have more eyes on you and a panel is more formal than a one-on-one, so it can seem unnatural,” Mr. Brandt said. “The advice is to try to relax as much as possible and keep your answers as brief as possible, because the interviewers will be on a tight timeline.”
